Something I've played with a bit, but another thread got me thinking more about IMTU...
There should be a reason for why smaller ship bridges exist, and why you need different kinds. The current model leaves, to me at least, something to be desired. Simplification is one thing, but the bigger the ship (or the more important the role of the ship) then the necessity for having a larger bridge occurs. It's also one that as you get more weapons, the bridge become less of the combat center and more kinda like the primary brain - a CIC with an entirely different crew does all the work while the captain says "go this way" or "shoot that" - the rest is the CIC. The tonnage for the below is where I think people are going to want to do it their way for the obvious reasons. I have my ideas, but am interested in hearing from others before sharing. The idea of the workstation is that it's where a crewmember sits to listen to the captain and do their bidding. I don't really count the captain as occupying one of the stations though.
Flight deck - the first of the 'bridges'. 1-2 people, It's meant for small craft, like shuttles and downward. It does the controls and sensors ok, but fighting or other non-flight related needs a separate control station added. Think a weapons if you are armed, a sensor station if you have to do dedicated electronic stuff or scanning. Otherwise the flight crew can flip a button and automation does the rest.
Compact - For small ships that don't need to do much. 4-6 stations. It's fine for the smallest of starships and all the basic functions can be done here. Combat and electronics though are limited. This is where a ship that has, say more than 4 turrets or launchers, starts getting to the point where they need a dedicated CIC to handle all the many things that a warship needs to do. Bigger survey or support vessels would need non-combat types of CIC (sensor operators for survey ships, auxillary control bridge for a ship that deals with larger numbers of small craft regularly docking with it).
Standard - The smallest that a DD-CL class ship would have, and sufficient for pretty much any civilian ship that has a singular purpose (freighter, liner, etc). Supports 12 workstations. Same rules as Compact apply (cascades for all of these).
Large - CA and BC. Supports 24 workstations. Large warfighters are going to have dedicated combat bridges who do the bulk of the work of the fighting.
Expanded - BB and up. Supports 36 workstations. Big ships have needs smaller ones don't. And it's also one of those things where the larger ship simply has more to do since it's never really alone.
Flag bridge (small) - necessary for a fleet to fight as a fleet instead of individual ships. Destroyer leaders and command cruisers and light carriers would need these. Supports extensive command and control workstations (24 total) plus a command deck/area with holotanks for leadership to observe and direct the fleet. Generally only used for 10-20 ships. Would also need additional tonnage for a separate crew (officers, ratings, separate berthing and mess facilities).
Flag bridge (standard) - Installed on CA, BC and CV classed ships. Controls up to 50 ships
Flag bridge (large) - Installed on BB, CVA classed ships. Controls up to 150 ships. Fleets bigger than this would usually have one ship with a fleet flag bridge.
Flag bridge (fleet) - Installed on the largest ships, DN/MT. Primary mission is to coordinate and liason with other fleet leaders. So the DN would have BB's and other ships underneath them controlling their own ships.
The idea for the breakdown is to differentiate the facilities and requirements for each. For some it's too much detail. Then again, if you are happy building a 250k Dton ship then part of the uniqueness of it is going to be both the how and the why of it being built like it is. What we've seen so far in modern naval designs is something similar to the above. Once radio's came about you started to see flag bridges for flotilla and fleet commanders to coordinate the battles while the ship that carried them did it's own thing (according to the flotilla/fleet commander). You also saw classes of ships that were either slightly larger to accomodate all this, or else they removed some weapons in order to squeeze it in. Pro's and con's to each.
Obviously there will be variations and exceptions. The idea though is that you see some reasoning behind the ship class itself. It's not that automation and capabilities won't be there in the future - what a 52nd century ship is capable of would be astounding. However the rules above deal more with the human side. And as we've seen in Traveller settings, they aren't any different really than we are today. And if that's the case, then we should expect them to have similar needs to do all the stuff that are done today with operations and leadership.
Anywhoo, just some scribblings that I thought I'd share.
There should be a reason for why smaller ship bridges exist, and why you need different kinds. The current model leaves, to me at least, something to be desired. Simplification is one thing, but the bigger the ship (or the more important the role of the ship) then the necessity for having a larger bridge occurs. It's also one that as you get more weapons, the bridge become less of the combat center and more kinda like the primary brain - a CIC with an entirely different crew does all the work while the captain says "go this way" or "shoot that" - the rest is the CIC. The tonnage for the below is where I think people are going to want to do it their way for the obvious reasons. I have my ideas, but am interested in hearing from others before sharing. The idea of the workstation is that it's where a crewmember sits to listen to the captain and do their bidding. I don't really count the captain as occupying one of the stations though.
Flight deck - the first of the 'bridges'. 1-2 people, It's meant for small craft, like shuttles and downward. It does the controls and sensors ok, but fighting or other non-flight related needs a separate control station added. Think a weapons if you are armed, a sensor station if you have to do dedicated electronic stuff or scanning. Otherwise the flight crew can flip a button and automation does the rest.
Compact - For small ships that don't need to do much. 4-6 stations. It's fine for the smallest of starships and all the basic functions can be done here. Combat and electronics though are limited. This is where a ship that has, say more than 4 turrets or launchers, starts getting to the point where they need a dedicated CIC to handle all the many things that a warship needs to do. Bigger survey or support vessels would need non-combat types of CIC (sensor operators for survey ships, auxillary control bridge for a ship that deals with larger numbers of small craft regularly docking with it).
Standard - The smallest that a DD-CL class ship would have, and sufficient for pretty much any civilian ship that has a singular purpose (freighter, liner, etc). Supports 12 workstations. Same rules as Compact apply (cascades for all of these).
Large - CA and BC. Supports 24 workstations. Large warfighters are going to have dedicated combat bridges who do the bulk of the work of the fighting.
Expanded - BB and up. Supports 36 workstations. Big ships have needs smaller ones don't. And it's also one of those things where the larger ship simply has more to do since it's never really alone.
Flag bridge (small) - necessary for a fleet to fight as a fleet instead of individual ships. Destroyer leaders and command cruisers and light carriers would need these. Supports extensive command and control workstations (24 total) plus a command deck/area with holotanks for leadership to observe and direct the fleet. Generally only used for 10-20 ships. Would also need additional tonnage for a separate crew (officers, ratings, separate berthing and mess facilities).
Flag bridge (standard) - Installed on CA, BC and CV classed ships. Controls up to 50 ships
Flag bridge (large) - Installed on BB, CVA classed ships. Controls up to 150 ships. Fleets bigger than this would usually have one ship with a fleet flag bridge.
Flag bridge (fleet) - Installed on the largest ships, DN/MT. Primary mission is to coordinate and liason with other fleet leaders. So the DN would have BB's and other ships underneath them controlling their own ships.
The idea for the breakdown is to differentiate the facilities and requirements for each. For some it's too much detail. Then again, if you are happy building a 250k Dton ship then part of the uniqueness of it is going to be both the how and the why of it being built like it is. What we've seen so far in modern naval designs is something similar to the above. Once radio's came about you started to see flag bridges for flotilla and fleet commanders to coordinate the battles while the ship that carried them did it's own thing (according to the flotilla/fleet commander). You also saw classes of ships that were either slightly larger to accomodate all this, or else they removed some weapons in order to squeeze it in. Pro's and con's to each.
Obviously there will be variations and exceptions. The idea though is that you see some reasoning behind the ship class itself. It's not that automation and capabilities won't be there in the future - what a 52nd century ship is capable of would be astounding. However the rules above deal more with the human side. And as we've seen in Traveller settings, they aren't any different really than we are today. And if that's the case, then we should expect them to have similar needs to do all the stuff that are done today with operations and leadership.
Anywhoo, just some scribblings that I thought I'd share.
All your SFB ships do 